The 2021 annual conference of the American Education Studies Association (AESA), held November 3 – 7 in Portland, Oregon, featured a session on Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda across Curriculum and Context, a newly published book in Ikeda/Soka studies in education. The editors, Isabel Nuñez (Purdue University Fort Wayne) and Institute director Jason Goulah, introduced the book and its core themes. Thereafter, chapter authors gave presentations on their contributions to the book and shared personal experiences of engaging with the work and ideas of Daisku Ikeda. Presenters included Nozomi Inukai (DePaul University), M. Francyne Huckaby (Texas Christian University), John Lupinacci (Washington State University), and Joe Ohlinger (Purdue University Fort Wayne). The session ended with a rich discussion among panelists and attendees on the power of hope and joy in education.

 Session presenters (photo credit: John Lupinacci)

The conference also included the following presentations by DePaul faculty and doctoral students engaged in Ikeda/Soka studies in education. The students’ presentations were based on research begun in Posthumanism and Human Education, a new doctoral course at DePaul on Ikeda’s philosophy of ningen kyōiku (human education).

Human Education as the Foundation of Education: Actualizing Wisdom, Courage, and Compassion in Our Classrooms
Melissa Riley Bradford
Nozomi Inukai

Creating the [Insert Name Here] Methodology: A Doctoral Journey into What Is Worth Knowing
Melissa Riley Bradford

Decoding the Curricula of Language Acquisition: An Examination of Social Constructs and Transformative Theoretical Frameworks
Sara Sukalski

Rerouting the Journey: A Quest into the Anthropocene
Nicole M Osborne

The Ecology of the Poet’s Practice: Curriculum as Metonymy of Stillness within the Anthropocenic Weltbild
Andrea Nicole Rehani

Dignity, Voice, and Healing in the Anthropocene
Tomas D Ramirez

Flattening the Hierarchy in Education to Foster Global Citizenship: A Duoethnography
Amy Weatherford
Melissa Feiger

Human Education in the Posthuman Anthropocene: Reconstructing Interdependencies with Nature, Technology, and Our Social Constructs
Jason Goulah

Humans, Nature, and the Demands on Economics Education
Brian Maj

Professional Growth as Developing Teachers’ Humanity
Nitesh Sil

Post-Pandemic Pedagogy: (Re)Examining the Role of Education
Erik Parsons
Stephanie Bennett

The Inevitability of the Developing of Humans Technology and Criticism of Posthumanism
Zixuan Huang

The Role of Language Education in Post-Human Turn
Ritsuko Rita

Global Citizenship, Peace Education and Sustainable Development for the Sake of Humanity
MaryAnn Mwende May

Becoming Human: Realizing Human Education Philosophy and its Applications to Service Learning for Social Justice
Qianhui Hub